William Winniett

Sir William Robert Wolseley Winniett (b. 2 March 1793, Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia. - d. 4 Dec. 1850, Accra - Ghana) was the Governor General of Gold Coast at Cape Coast Castle (Ghana). He worked to abolish the slave trade on the Slave Coast of West Africa.[1][2]

Winniett's first ship HMS Cleopatra

Royal Navy

Winniett joined the Royal Navy at Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1807 on HMS Cleopatra. While aboard Cleopatra, under the command of Samuel Pechell, Winniett fought in the Action of 22 January 1809 and the Invasion of Martinique (1809).[3][4]

He also served on the flagship HMS Tonnant under Sir Alexander Cochrane, Commander-in-Chief, North American Station (1814-1815).[5] During that time, Winniett was involved in the Battle of Lake Borgne, in Louisiana in December 1814 and the Battle of New Orleans on 8 January 1815. Cochrane created a proclamation that invited Black slaves to freedom by joining the crews of the Royal Navy.[6]

On 24 December 1818, he was assigned to Morgiana, which was on the African coastal patrol to suppress the slave trade.[7] He commanded Viper (1837), Firefly (1839) and Lightning (1842).[4]

British Governor

On 24 October 1845 Winniett became lieutenant governor of the Gold Coast (Ghana), under the jurisdiction of the Governor of Sierra Leone.[8] He went to the capital of Abomey (Benin) to try to abolish the slave trade (1847). (The Slave Trade Act outlawed the slave trade in the British Empire in 1807 and the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 outlawed slavery altogether.)

In 1848 he led the West India Regiments and others to stop the murdering of Africans and Europeans by deposing Kaku Aka, the king of Amanahia [Apollonia] (also known as Kwaku Akka).[9][10][11]

With Thomas Birch Freeman as his secretary, that same year, he went to the Kingdom of Ashanti to persuade Ghezo, King of the Dahomey, in present-day Benin (also known as King Kwaku Dua; Gizu the King of Dahomi) to stop the slave trade and abolish human sacrifice.[12][13][14] (At the time the King exported 8,000 slaves a year.)[15][16][17][18]

He also purchased Dutch fortresses on the Slave Coast to end Dutch slave trade.[19]

He was knighted by Queen Victoria on 29 June 1849 at Buckingham Palace.[20][21]

He died 4 December 1850 at Jamestown/Usshertown, Accra and was interred in the cemetery at Fort Christiansborg (Ebenezer Presbyterian Church, Osu).[22][23]

Family

Winniett was the grandchild of Joseph Winniett (d. 1789) and the son of William Winniett (d.1824), both of Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia.[23][24] His family had seven boys and six girls. His great aunt Anne Cosby was married to Nova Scotia Council member Major Alexander Cosby. She freed her three black slaves in 1788.[25]

He was the son-in-law of William Fenwick Williams.[3][26]

Winniett was also the maternal grandson of New York Loyalist Joseph Totten, from whose family Tottenville, Staten Island was named.[27]

Legacy

The Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society placed a memorial at Sir Winniett's in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia in 1880.[26]

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See also

References
  1. Cruickshank, Brodie (January 28, 1853). "Eighteen years on the Gold Coast of Africa, including an account of the native tribes, and their intercourse with Europeans". London, Hurst and Blackett – via Internet Archive.
  2. USA, David Owusu-Ansah, Associate Provost of Diversity at James Madison University (February 27, 2014). "Historical Dictionary of Ghana". Rowman & Littlefield – via Google Books.
  3. "The Gentleman's magazine". London. January 28, 1731 – via Internet Archive.
  4. "Biography of William Robert Wolseley Winniett R.N." www.pdavis.nl.
  5. The captain of HMS Tonnant during this period was Captain Charles Kerr.
  6. "Alexander Cochrane | The Canadian Encyclopedia". www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca.
  7. "Biography – WINNIETT, Sir WILLIAM ROBERT WOLSELEY – Volume VII (1836-1850) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography". 199.167.129.205.
  8. "The Gentleman's magazine". London. January 28, 1731 – via Internet Archive.
  9. Ellis, A. B. (Alfred Burdon) (January 28, 1885). "History of the first West India regiment". London : Chapman – via Internet Archive.
  10. The Fall of Kaku Aka: Social and Political Change in the Mid-Nineteenth-Century Western Gold Coast. Pierluigi Valsecchi. Journal of West African History. Vol. 2, No. 1 (Spring 2016), pp. 1-26
  11. TNA CO 96/27, F. Swanzy, “Narrative of the Expedition to Appolonia, from Cape Coast Castle, in 1848 (from the ‘M. S. Magazine’ of May–June 1850)” (Amelhaya)
  12. Chambers, William; Chambers, Robert (January 28, 1832). "Chambers' Edinburgh journal". [London : William Orr] – via Internet Archive.
  13. [https://archive.org/details/britishcoloniest07mart/page/191?q=%22gold+coast%22+winniett The British colonies : their history, extent, condition and resources by Martin, Robert Montgomery, 1803?-1868, p. 191]
  14. "Biography – WINNIETT, Sir WILLIAM ROBERT WOLSELEY – Volume VII (1836-1850) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography". brixton24.biographi.ca.
  15. Claridge, William Walton; Clifford, Hugh Charles (January 28, 1915). "A history of the Gold Coast and Ashanti from the earliest times to the commencement of the twentieth century". London, J. Murray – via Internet Archive.
  16. "The journal of the Royal Geographic Society of London". London : J. Murray. January 28, 1831 – via Internet Archive.
  17. "800 Slaves Sacrificed in Tribute on the Death of GEZO the Great Slave King of Dahomey 1858 · Bahamianology". Bahamianology. October 27, 2018.
  18. Lords, Great Britain Parliament House of (January 28, 1849). "Accounts and Papers" – via Google Books.
  19. Nørregård, Georg (January 19, 2020). "The English purchase of the Danish possessions in the East Indies and Africa, 1845 and 1850". Paris : [Société de l'histoire des colonies françaises – via Internet Archive.
  20. "Bulletins and other state intelligence". London, Compiled and arranged from the official documents published in the London gazette. January 28, 1794 – via Internet Archive.
  21. Shaw, William Arthur; Burtchaell, George Dames (January 28, 1906). "The knights of England : a complete record from the earliest time to the present day of the knights of all the orders of chivalry in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and of knights bachelors". London : Printed and published for the Central chancery of the orders of knighthood [by] Sherratt and Hughes – via Internet Archive.
  22. Crooks, Major J. J. (October 8, 2013). "Records Relating to the Gold Coast Settlements from 1750 to 1874". Routledge – via Google Books.
  23. Calnek, W. A. (William Arthur); Savary, A. W. (Alfred William) (January 28, 1897). "History of the county of Annapolis : including old Port Royal and Acadia : with memoirs of its representatives in the provincial parliament, and biographical and genealogical sketches of its early English settlers and their families". Toronto : William Briggs – via Internet Archive.
  24. "Biography – WINNIETT, WILLIAM – Volume III (1741-1770) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography". www.biographi.ca.
  25. "Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society". Halifax, Nova Scotia Historical Society. January 28, 1880 – via Internet Archive.
  26. "Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society". Halifax : Nova Scotia Historical Society. January 28, 1880 – via Internet Archive.
  27. Annapolis Heritage Society - 18th Century Retrieved May 16, 2020
Government offices
Preceded by
James Lelley		 Governor of the Gold Coast
1846–1849		 Succeeded by
James Coleman Fitzpatrick
Government offices
Preceded by
James Coleman Fitzpatrick,		 Governor of the Gold Coast
1850		 Succeeded by
James Bannerman
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